Tempting Fate

A Story by Negasi

In a society where humans are basically masters of the world they live on, Non-Humans, or Non's as they are called, are looked down upon. One Non finds herself fighting for her cause and one unknown.

Prologue: A Minor Event

They do not know how it feels to be like I am.

They call me a monster, but they do not even know my true name. I wish I could reveal it to them, so they would know that I am not evil. I am not a monster. I am Lyweth, which in my language means "ever changing." How can one who is ever changing be evil if they are always changing? This I do not understand, maybe it is a foreign concept to my people. I do not know. Can humans not see beauty in scales? I am a Dragoran, half dragon, half human. A half breed, a mutt or a non-human as they see fit to call us hybrids. Generally we are called Nons, because humans are lazy and saying non-humans would just be too much work for them.

"What are you doing out here in the forest so far away from your people and protection Non?" a voice came from behind her and she whirled around to see three adolescent boys standing in front of her, all being armed. One carried a small axe, probably used for woodcutting, whilst one had a small knife. The third happened to be carrying a short sword that happened to look as though it were in half decent condition. She prayed the boy didn't know how to use it.

"Now boys we don't need to get into any..."

"Shut up b***h. You are a Non and as far as I am concerned you will speak when spoken too," said the boy with the sword. He was doing all the talking so Lyweth figured that he was probably the leader of this band of thugs. She had a feeling they were pretty experienced thugs. Considering the fact they had made themselves known when they clearly had the advantage of surprise and the fact that they were so arrogant made her believe that they either had some skill or they were all talk, and she wasn't betting on the latter of the two.

"Yeah that's what I thought. It's scum like you who make this world an ugly place. Before they started letting scum like you into our cities, our streets used to be clean. We used to have plenty of food and water. Times were great. Now? We live in poverty, because of you. So because of this we must make a sacrifice and hope our god will hear us out. Boys if you would?" the boy finished and no sooner did Mr. Axe and Mr. Knife step forward.

Religious? That opens up a whole new strategy. They must be killed. I will not feel remorse. If I do not kill them, they will kill me, or others. No this is survival of the fittest, and I plan to be just that.

"It is unfortunate that I will have to kill you humans now," she said before closing her eyes in order to better remember words of power that she had at her disposal. Remembering the few that she wanted was not hard and she pointed her scaly index finger at the boy with the knife and spoke in her language, words of power. Even the boys knew it was magic by the intensity and the crystalline clarity and raw power within the words themselves. The boy whimpered slightly before he spontaneously exploded, his innards painting the area new colors.

To the boys credit, it took them only about two seconds to jump into battle once they saw their friend become completely destroyed by the Dragoran's magic. The axe wielder came first as he was closest, violently swinging at the sorcerer. Lyweth brought her staff up to parry the upper cut like blow of the axe man. He was significantly quicker than she had thought, yet she still parried his next overhand blow, and knocked his axe completely wide.

She then, with a twirl of her staff and the utterance of the command word of her staff, she smacked the boy hard in the side of his head. Normally this would of just made him fall to the ground in a lot of pain but the staff she carried had magical qualities and so because of this when the staff impacted with the adolescent's head, a hole appeared. One that went in one side of his head and out the other. The lifeless body dropped to the ground, and she now had only one foe standing in her way.

"You should leave now and never bother me again. I can spare your life if you agree to leave now, but otherwise I regret to inform you I am going to have to kill you," Lyweth rasped, her thick tongue still not completely used to the human language.

"Just because you killed my two lackeys doesn't mean you could kill me. Certainly not so easily. See you do not understand I am infused with the power and the will of my god, and so I can not lose. You see this is not a fight, this is a war. A war against Nons like you who think you can just live with us humans with the same rights and treatment. Face it you are a monster, a beast. You should be thanking me for killing you, it is an act of mercy," the boy responded just as snappily but Lyweth had stopped listening after he had called her a monster. A nerve had snapped inside her and she was no longer thinking rationally.

"I am not a monster! How dare you judge me. Do you not see the monstrosity that is your own people? Humans! They are the worst of any being! You kill each other over gold, land, women. Simple things. Sometimes you kill for pleasure, for sport, for entertainment. I have never heard of anything so barbaric! Yet still you want to sit here and call me a monster? We have talked long enough, I need to feed my desire to kill you and my lust for you blood. When you die and see this God you speak of, tell him that I am not afraid of him. If he wants to kill Nons like me, then tell him to come himself and not send some stupid useless adolescent to do his bidding," she retorted venom seeping from her voice as she spoke.

"How dare you insult the great Avareth! You shall die for such blasphemy!" the human screamed and launched himself forward sword in hand. Lyweth quickly rolled to the side, loosing a grip on her staff as she did so. Bringing herself to her feet, she grabbed the sword that was tucked into her belt. She was surprised at the youth's speed as he was already on her, hacking wildly at her, forcing her to back pedal. Then she quickly incited a spell, tendrils of lighting shooting forth from her outstretched fingertips to slam into the boy.

She was surprised when the magic hit him and appeared to have absolutely no effect on him whatsoever. She barely brought her sword up in time to deflect another swing, still dumbfounded by the failure of her magic. "You think you can use your Non magic on me! Stupid half breed, I am protected by my god!" the youth yelled a crazy grin on his face. He then swung his sword down at her, and she quickly sidestepped the blow and thrust forward with her own sword. The blade easily tore through the boys skin and muscle of his torso. When she removed the sword, she was covered by a jet of blood.

"Seems you weren't so important after all. Your god couldn't protect you from a little bit of metal," she smirked confidently. "You will pay, he will not let you live. I was his subject, his loyal follower. He will avenge me..." the boy stopped talking, apparently dead. Lyweth wiped the blood off of her face before assessing the situation. The three boys were all dead and she could hear other's coming to investigate. At least she assumed that's what all the rustling of leaves and shouting was. Always the opportunist, Lyweth gathered up the fallen boys' weapons and placed them on her belt. She then took off at a full run in the opposite direction of the noise.

I am not a monster.

© 2011 Negasi

Author's Note

This is a rough draft so bear with me. If I stop to edit all the time, my first draft will never get completed, so please keep that in mind. I have five chapters all written ready to go up when I get a chance, and a sixth on the way.